by Cindy Dees
The leg strength and agility it had taken for him to do that and not go sprawling was incredible. “Nice move,” she managed to force past the raging lust closing down her throat.
He grinned back at her. “I have lots of good moves. I can’t wait to show them all to you.”
She gulped. Did having an orgasm while in a half-Nelson constitute winning or losing this particular fight? It was getting hard to tell. Although two could play that game.
She gave as good as she got. “You know, pretty soon you’re going to break a sweat. And with all those gorgeous acres of glistening muscles to look at, I’ll be a goner. I’ll pack in the fight and ravish you instead.”
“Just so long as we understand that counts as a loss for you and a win for me,” he retorted. He tossed off the thumb lock she tried and added, “It remains to be seen who ravishes whom, however. After all, I’m the Viking.”
“Yeah, but I’m the reincarnated Viking goddess.” And she jumped. She feinted for his head, and as he ducked the grab, she plowed into his gut with her left fist. He grunted and spun away before she could grab him in a bear hug. Man, he was fast!
“Good shot,” he said, a little breathless himself.
“Need a break?” she asked.
He threw her a withering glare. “Do you actually ask hostiles that in the middle of a fight?”
“No,” she retorted scornfully.
“Then don’t ask it of me,” he bit out as he slid fast to her right and came in from the strong side. The move surprised her. Very few people ever attacked her strong side. She stumbled as he slammed his shoulder into hers, and was stunned to trip backwards over his right heel. How in the heck had he gotten that leg hooked behind hers without her noticing? She crashed to the dirt floor. At the last second, she partially tucked and rolled, enough to absorb the worst of the impact.
But Anders was on top of her before she could even draw a full breath.
She tossed her body weight from side to side and he partially lost his grasp on her, but he pursued her relentlessly.
“Oh, no you don’t,” he grunted. “I’m not letting you get away. I’ve waited my whole life for a woman like you.”
His whole life? Whoa. Distracted, she barely got an elbow wedged between them in time to stop him from putting a smothering, full-body hold on her.
“No fair distracting me,” she protested.
“Who said anything about playing fair? I want you.”
His forearm landed across her collarbones with his full body weight behind it. He’d pinned down her shoulders with bruising effectiveness. She lifted her right leg, struggling to wedge a knee between the two of them. Although why she should want to do that, she had no earthly idea. His body, sprawled across hers with only minimal clothing between them, felt absolutely delicious. An insidious, weakening warmth began to steal through her muscles. Instead, she wrapped her leg around his waist—oh, man, that felt amazing, having the right parts of him pressed against her core like that—and squeezed for all she was worth. It was probably futile to try to rob him of oxygen given his level of aerobic fitness, but it was the only move she had left.
She lurched against his arm, nonetheless, testing its strength. He rocked his weight forward to put more pressure on her shoulders, and in the process, ground his hips squarely against parts of her that needed no encouragement. Her leg tightened convulsively around his waist, pulling him even tighter against her. Heat scalded her feminine flesh.
A groan of bliss escaped her lips, and he jolted, raising himself up on his arm to stare down at her. Nope, she hadn’t gotten lucky. He hadn’t misinterpreted that sound.
His eyes blazed with raw desire. He rocked his hips against hers again. No matter that they weren’t actually having sex. Her blood pounded and her body throbbed until she could hardly breathe.
She heaved up, trying to toss him off her. His forearm slipped slightly, and she redoubled her efforts.
“I’m…going to…win. I want…all of you,” he grunted.
Straining just as hard, she retorted, “You…make me…sound like…a bowl of…ice cream.”
“No ice cream…is going to…taste as…sweet…as you,” he answered through clenched teeth.
She finally yanked her right arm free from where it had been trapped beneath her and wedged her own elbow under his chin. She pushed for all she was worth. He shifted his hold, entangling their arms as they struggled for purchase, she to toss him off, and he to subdue her once more. Her biceps began to fatigue. Burned under the strain of holding him off. Then trembled under it.
Millimeter by millimeter, Anders pushed her arm aside. His free arm rested on the floor beside her, nestled intimately against the side of her breast. Ever so slowly, he was forcing her right arm down to her side, approaching completing a bear hug on her ribcage that would finally immobilize her. She had no doubt he was strong enough to prevent her ribs from expanding enough for her to breathe.
His grasp wrapped more tightly around her. She flailed back and forth, but his superior body weight was to his advantage. He spread his legs wide, tripod fashion, and used them to prevent her from rolling over. Damn, he was strong!
Too winded for wordplay now, they grappled in silence.
And ever so slowly, he got the best of her. How long it took, she had no idea. But eventually, blessedly, he forced her arms down to her sides. His own arms wrapped tightly around her upper torso. He planted one leg wide on either side of her body, his powerful skier’s legs making it impossible for her to roll out from under him. His face was inches from hers, his eyes glowing with victory—and sexual anticipation that stole away what little breath she could draw in his iron grasp.
“Ready to surrender?” he gritted out from between his clenched teeth.
She looked up into his beautiful, blazing eyes. Time stood still around them as they strained against one another, nearly identically matched adversaries. Nearly. All her major muscle groups were near their limit. And for once, the trembling fatigue and burning pain felt amazing.
She’d done it. She’d found a man she couldn’t beat. At least, not every time. And that was good enough for her.
She smiled up at him brilliantly. “Uncle.”
Chapter 16
Northern Norway, March 11, 7:00 p.m.
Karen lay on her stomach in the snow at the top of the ridge, peering down through her night-vision goggles on maximum magnification at Point X-Ray, which they’d dubbed the cabin. As in X marks the spot.
The cabin looked much the same as it had the last time, with a few minor changes. Where once a pile of twenty or more fifty-five-gallon steel drums had stood, now the pile was down to three drums. A wide, packed trail led from the cabin door off to the east—left to right in her field of vision. It looked to have been made by a small, tracked vehicle. A snowmobile to judge from those small, horizontal ridges in the snow.
The cabin was surprisingly active. Lights were on in several rooms. She’d spotted outside floodlights mounted on each corner of the cabin, but they were blessedly turned off at the moment. Those exterior lights were both good and bad. On the plus side, if they got flipped on, they’d illuminate any human targets like ducks in a shooting gallery. On the minus side, the lights would negate the Medusas’ night-vision gear and any advantage they’d have of operating in the dark. The bad guys would be blind, however, to anything and anyone beyond the range of the floodlights. The Medusas could use that to their advantage.
Well, the Medusas minus her. She didn’t get to play with the other children because she couldn’t be trusted not to flip out with a rifle in her hands. That, and Aleesha was concerned that too much exertion might release more of the drug stored in fat cells into her blood. She had to sit in the principal’s office and watch the other kids have recess out on the playground, dammit.
Irritation flared in her gut. And it didn’t have anything to do with the drugs coursing through her system! It was just plain annoying to be cut out of the action.
“Any movement, Python?” Vanessa asked from over where everyone else was huddled, a few yards away, well below the ridge line. They got to plan out the attack while she played harmless spotter.
“Three men are moving around the main room. Looks like they’re setting up more lab gear.”
“Anyone outside?” her boss followed up.
“I would have told you if there was,” Karen snapped. “I mean it’s not like I don’t know how important it would be to announce that they have a sentry posted.”
“Riigghht,” Vanessa drawled. “Thanks.”
Karen scowled. And now they were going to accuse her of going crazy again. She was just feeling a little testy. She had complete control over it.
“…so Anders will plant the explosives in and around the cabin with Aleesha and Misty helping him. The rest of us will move around front and create a shooting diversion. If they retreat inside and refuse to come out, we warn them verbally to surrender. If they refuse, we blow up the place with them in it. If they do surrender, Anders, Jack and I will go inside and clear the cabin. Because we haven’t practiced room clearing with Anders, we’ll go into each room solo. I don’t want us to kill each other because the Norwegians and the Americans manage their fields of fire differently.”
No kidding. That would suck to have one of your own teammates rake his weapon fire across your position and cut you in half. Although a tiny part of Karen’s brain was amused at the idea of jumping into a room with a half-dozen other Special Forces operators and mowing them all down where they stood. She could just imagine the looks of surprise on their faces as they went down.
Vanessa continued, “When we go through the front door into the main room, we’ll do a standard wedge field of fire. I’ll spin in and take the left third of the room, Jack will spin in and take the right third, and you go in straight and take the middle, Anders.”
Karen frowned. That put Anders in the most vulnerable position. What was Vanessa trying to do? Get him killed?
Her boss continued, blithely unaware of Karen’s fury beside her. “After the main room is clear, I’ll take the southeast bedroom. Jack, you take the northeast bedroom and the bathroom. Anders, you take the kitchen. When the three of us have reported an all-clear, we’ll retreat outside, and Anders will blow it.”
“Everybody clear on the plan?”
Karen couldn’t resist being pissy. In a fake perky voice, she announced, “And I’ll knit everyone scarves so we’ll all be cozy and color-coordinated when this mission is over.”
Vanessa replied evenly, without breaking her briefing tone of voice, “I need you to act as the spotter for both teams. Take up a position two hundred yards east of the cabin where you can keep an eye on that snowmobile trail for movement and watch both the group setting the explosives and the group picking the fight.”
It was a sop. A fake job to make her feel like she was part of it while they kept her out of the way. But let her do a real job? No way. Her eyes narrowed and her gaze clashed with Vanessa’s.
Viper said quietly, “I realize you don’t like being left out of the fight, Python. But if you were in my place, would you put a weapon in your hands?”
Karen scowled, but a tiny part of her appreciated Vanessa’s blunt honesty.
Viper continued, “I don’t have the manpower to spare to put someone on you to watch you and make sure you don’t lose control. I need you to watch our backs and hold it together. Those are important jobs and I need your full concentration on both of them. I’m trusting you, here.”
Karen sighed. Her boss was right, but that didn’t mean she had to like sitting out here with only binoculars for a weapon.
Vanessa announced, “I want one more equipment check and a radio check. Then we head out.”
When it was her turn to come up on frequency and report how much ammo she was carrying and indicate that she could hear everyone else loud and clear, Karen responded blithely, “Two knitting needles locked and loaded, and I hear you five by five.” Meaning, on a scale from one to five, her radio reception strength and clarity were both at maximum.
Anders moved over beside her and murmured off microphone, “You okay?”
“Yeah. Why?”
“You sound a bit…belligerent.”
“Wouldn’t you be belligerent if all you got to do was watch the damned operation?”
He shrugged, although his parka masked much of the movement. “I suppose so. But we both know why it has to be that way.”
She glared back in silence.
“I’d kiss you if I didn’t think our lips would freeze together,” he murmured. “Be safe. I don’t want to lose you now that I’ve found you.”
Okay, so that punctured her belligerence a little. Still. Go over there and watch us, Karen. Be a good little girl and let us know if anyone is coming. Oh, and you don’t get to carry any weapons. You can’t be trusted…
Yada, yada, yada.
“Let’s head out,” Vanessa transmitted.
Oslo, Norway, March 11, 8:00 p.m.
Jens opened the front door. “Come on in, Ivo. She’s almost ready.”
Ivo came inside, brushing off his coat. The snow was coming down hard out there. Or rather, it was blowing sideways hard. Jens doubted much of it was reaching the ground in these winds.
Ivo commented, “I’m hoping that with the clubs more crowded on a Friday our boy will show up to push his pills.”
“Let’s hope so. We could really use a break, since we’ve had no luck stopping the stuff from hitting the street.”
“Well, maybe the military operation up north can shut down the lab making it.”
Jens snorted. “Can you imagine what would happen if this stuff got distributed all over Europe?”
The two men traded grim looks. It didn’t even bear thinking about. Fortunately, Astrid chose that moment to stroll down the stairs wearing a dress that was too tight and too short for a father’s taste, but seemed just right for Ivo’s.
Ivo held her coat for her while Jens bit back an urge to tell the two of them to be careful. They knew that. And besides, an entire team of undercover cops was accompanying them everywhere they went. It would be okay. He hoped.
Northern Norway, March 11, 9:00 p.m.
Karen slogged down the ridge line to her left and lay down in the snow to tunnel below the crest so her passing wouldn’t be visible from a distance. It was just like their first day of training when they’d done this little maneuver. Except this time she felt no pain from pulling herself forward on her elbows, and the cold and snow down her jacket felt good. She was burning up all of a sudden.
It was slow going pulling herself along on her belly in the snow. She stopped now and then to turn her head and check out the cabin through her NVGs. Still no movement outside. But the guys inside were scurrying around like rats in a cage. In a big hurry, apparently. What had their knickers in such a twist?
The wind howled around her like a moaning ghost. The storm’s fury had lessened to a dull roar for the moment, but new snow still whirled and danced like a dervish. Visibility sucked. She was two hundred yards from the cabin at the moment and couldn’t see a blessed thing but white. She’d have to move in closer. To hell with Vanessa’s instructions.
She angled toward the cabin, crawling until she reached the snowmobile trail. She supposed she ought to treat it like a stealthy road crossing and do it fast and low when the coast was clear. But, hell’s bells…In this weather, she could park in the middle of it and do a jig, and no one would see her! As tempting as that was, she rolled her eyes and did it the old-fashioned way by scooting across on her belly. She hoped that, wherever Vanessa and Jack were lurking right now, they were satisfied.
She turned around, which was a pain in the ass flat on her stomach, reached out, and used one finger to repair the snowmobile tread marks as best she could. It wasn’t perfect, but she highly doubted the bad guys would be coming through here with a fine-tooth comb to notice the hastily repaired track. When the
wind settled down and actually let snow fall to the ground, new snow would cover it anyway.
She crawled for another fifteen minutes in fits and starts, keeping her movements arrhythmic and slow. She stopped about fifty yards from the cabin when she could actually make out the building and the shadows around it. Yup, just as she’d thought, having a spotter out here in these low-visibility conditions was a complete waste of time. Incoherent anger choked her at being set aside like this.
She dared not get much closer or she’d end up in someone’s field of fire and get hit by a stray bullet. But much farther away and she couldn’t see anything at all. She refused to sit off by herself in the middle of a freaking blizzard while the others did this op.
She burrowed carefully, digging a shallow depression for herself to lie in. Then she propped her NVGs on the edge of it and commenced watching the snow go by.
Her palms itched for a weapon. Any weapon. A damned knitting needle would be better than this!
And then she saw a movement. On the snowy slope right behind the cabin. A white shape low to the ground. No way to tell if it was Anders, Misty or Aleesha. But at least she had a fix on Team One. She turned her attention to spotting the other Medusa team. They were impossible to pick out. They’d probably already moved into position while she made her way to this little garden spot. Without them moving or firing, there was no way she’d pick them out of the amorphous blob that was the night and blowing snow. Which was good. The name of the game was to be invisible. She went back to watching Anders and friends.
It was textbook. They crept down to the back of the cabin and laid several blocks of explosives along the wall. That must be Anders in the front setting the explosives. For legal reasons, a Norwegian needed to do the actual work. He’d also be the guy to push the little red button.
